Vox Fidelis

Navigating commercial reality involves navigating the deontic relations that shape that reality and which thereby impact a firm’s realization of projected states of affairs. Creating the world of a projected state of affairs often requires persuading federal regulatory bodies that the firm’s instantiation within the projected sphere is appropriate. Two considerations are especially important on this score. One is that government agencies lack time and operate inefficiently. The other is that they do not ordinarily, at the threshold, have a structured action to take – actionable clarity does not yet exist.  

In most regulatory proceedings, firms have a variety of opportunities to provide federal agencies with the structure - written and oral explanations - that will aid the rendering of lucid decisions. The key is to infuse those structures with high quality. Objectivity is a compelling characteristic of high-quality explanation. Why is this? For one thing, contrary to the instincts of many attorneys, advocacy is more intellectually persuasive the more objectively it is framed. For another, the objectivity of a ruling by a regulatory agency signals action-in-the-public interest - a statutory mandate for many agencies - and for this reason they are more apt to adopt party-presentations that are objectively framed. Third, agencies are concerned that their decisions withstand challenges on judicial appeal and withstand embarrassing scrutiny from Congress. Facilitating the reasoned belief by an agency that its ruling will be objective if the agency adopts the firm's view is thus an important key to obtaining favorable action.

In a more nuanced sense, objectivity is evidence that the firm is trustworthy. A position articulated objectively conveys that the firm is simply 'reporting the facts of the matter' and therefore can be trusted. Firms that interact with agencies vox fidelis - with 'trustworthy voices' - are uncommon; they are statistically unlikely and therefore intuitively viewed by regulators as having greater authority - more commercial jurisdiction - than their competitors.

The capability to frame explanations objectively is a distinct competitive advantage in complex environments. Articulating explanations that have compelling objectivity involves strong design thinking, which is a prominent feature of our Pragmatica ontology.